Heretofore various electronic watt-hour meters incorporating a microprocessor therein have been proposed. Such electronic watt-hour meters have provided for the monitoring of and the storing of information related to power demand and power use by a consumer. Also, such meters have included circuitry, programming and switches connected to various consumer loads for enabling the microprocessor to switch off or de-energize certain consumer loads during high electric use periods, e.g., daytime, and to switch on or energize these loads during low electric use periods, e.g., night-time.
Examples of such previously proposed electronic watt-hour meters are disclosed in the following U.S. patents:
______________________________________ U.S. PAT. NO. PATENTEE ______________________________________ 3,505,508 Leyde 3,522,421 Miller 3,789,201 Carpenter, et al. 4,034,233 Leyde 4,059,747 Brody 4,075,699 Schneider, et al. 4,240,030 Bateman, et al. 4,241,237 Paraskevakos, et al. 4,253,151 Bouve ______________________________________
See also European Patent Application Publication No. 0015666 for: Apparatus for Controlling Electric Power Consumption, filed by South Eastern Electricity Board, Queens Gardens Hove, Sussex, England.
Moreover, a solid state watt-hour meter utilizing a Hall-effect sensor is disclosed in copending application Ser. No. 303,627 filed Sept. 18, 1981 and entitled Solid State Watt-Hour Meter, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Also, it has been proposed to modify a conventional watt-hour meter by providing a photocell positioned above apertures or notches in the rotating induction disk of the meter in U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,030.
As will be described in greater detail hereinafter, the electronic watt-hour meter of the present invention differs from the previously proposed electronic watt-hour meters by providing an electro-optical sensor with direction sensing circuitry. Also, a power supply for the microprocessor in the watt-hour meter is operated off a power supply coil mounted on the yoke of the electro-optical sensor.
Although systems for detecting direction of motion have been proposed, see for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,157,507, such a system has not been proposed for use in an electro-optical watt-hour sensor. Moreover, the particular sensing circuitry utilized in the sensor of the present invention is believed to be unique and novel, and is simple in design and inexpensive.